Monday, November 1, 2010

I wrote up a recent article talking about the importance of Chiropractic care and it's ability to improve athletic performance. If you haven't checked out Wold Fitness, now is the time to browse his site. It is packed with tons of great info and a lot of videos demonstrating genius ways to maximize your workouts.

Tiger Woods: Yes, even Tiger needs to get adjusted. It won't solve all of his problems, but it will definately help his golf game.

Lance Armstrong: Dr. Jeffery Spencer DC is, as described by Lance Armstrong in his book Every Second Counts, “part doctor, part guru, part medicine man.... While he fixed us physically he also fixed us mentally … we believed Jeff could fix anything...”

College Athletes: In 2006, a study analyzing Division I NCAA college athletes at inter-college sporting events in Hawaii found that chiropractic usage within the last 12 months was reported by 39% of respondents.

I hope this has motivated you to check out the benefits of Chiropractic and to want to take care of your health in the same manner these professionals do.

Monday, July 26, 2010

I've spent the last decade focused on discovering the secrets of transforming physiques that "master trainers" use to get incredible results with their clients.

A big stumbling block that many people have when they start training is BACK PAIN.

Great people come to see me for training, but car accidents, bad chairs, and other factors have put their back in so much pain that they can hardly walk, let alone exercise.

That's how I came to work with Dr. Russell - the man is a genius when it comes to getting my clients pain-free and ready to train.

A few months ago Brian was in my gym and I put him through a quick workout with a kettlebell (a kettlebell is a cool cannonball with a handle that is a hidden training secret of Hollywood Stars, Special Forces Units, and Elite Athletes)

He instantly realized the amazing potential for the kettlebell as a back rehabilitation tool.

If you want to strengthen your back - here are five reasons that kettlebells are right for you:

Saturday, May 22, 2010

In addition to visiting Dr. Russell for treatments, there are a few simple exercises you can do at home to help reduce back pain.

Lower back pain is often started by misaligned hips. When your hips don't line up the way they are supposed to, they cause your low back to take on the strain that should be loaded on strong glute muscles.

So, to help Dr. Russell keep your hips aligned and get rid of back pain, you need to focus on 3 simple things:

Below are some of the exercises we use in my Carson City Bootcamp that you can easily do at home - they'll help you a lot. And at the bottom of this post is a simple routine that uses all of these exercises to address the CAUSES of low back pain - misalignment and neural deactivation.

Fire Hydrants and Hip Circles

These strengthen your gluteus medius and really loosen your hips up.

If you spend any time at all sitting during the day, you NEED to be doing hip circles to keep your hips loose.

A key with these is to keep your back flat while you move your legs.

Hip Flexor Stretches

Your hip flexors are the muscles that pull your knee up toward your body. When you sit, these muscles are shortened.

Over time, your hip flexors will tilt your pelvis out of alignment. This keeps your nice strong glute muscles from being able to do any work and you wind up with low back pain and a lack of tone in your butt.

The key to this stretch is to actually STRETCH. Too many people just go through the motions. Push into the hip you're stretching - hard.

Glute Bridges

These are one of the best exercises for activating your butt muscles. This wakes up the nerves in your glutes and gets them ready for action - like supporting your back.

An important thing to remember is to press down through your heels... if you press with your toes your quads take over a lot of the work.

Bird Dogs

This is a key exercise for lumbar endurance. Dr. Stuart McGill has shown that for preventing back injuries, endurance is more important than strength.

By keeping your spine in a neutral position, you are training the muscles in your back to support you.

To get the most out of this exercise, point your arm straight out in front of you and have your leg lifted level straight behind you.

Bridging Leg Lifts

This is a combination exercise that works on glute and low-back endurance, while simultaneously loosening your hamstrings.

The biggest thing to remember is to keep your hips as high as you can and stretch back as far as you can while keeping your leg straight.

A Quick And Simple Program To Reduce Back Pain

3 way hip flexor stretch - 20 seconds each position - repeat other side

Piriformis stretch - 30 seconds each side

Glute Bridges - 20 reps with a squeeze at the top

Bird Dogs - 30 seconds each side

Bridging Leg Lifts - 10 each side

There you go, five easy exercises that will help get rid of your back pain! Go for it!

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Luke Wold is a personal trainer in Carson City, NV. He offers rapid weight loss fitness training and nutritional programs to anyone who wants to look great quickly.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

For two weekends I was able to work with some great athletes. I evaluated and treated injuries relating to shoulder, knee, hip, back, neck, ankle, thumbs, wrists etc. If you could injure it, they did it. This tournament was huge, it is put on by NCVA and is a National Junior Olympics qualifier for the teams that place high in the tournament. Thousands of volleyball players participated and we saw on average 150 plus injured athletes on a daily basis. Some just required ice and rest, others were sent for x-rays and a possible cast. So for this blog I thought that I might share some insights that are important when practicing in the world of Sports Medicine.

1) Nutrition. While walking around the convention center I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the teams were busy eating between matches. Some teams brought their own food. Fruits, veggies, gallons of water while others went to the snack bar and were gorging themselves on greasy pizza and lemonade drinks that had so much sugar that it could put you into a diabetic coma. I'll let you decide who you think was ready to play and who was sluggish on the court.

2) Taping. Not all tape jobs are created equal. Taping is an art and it takes a lot of practice to get it right, not to mention doing to correctly so as to prevent injury. Many times an athlete would show up in our room and tell us they rolled their ankle. They didn't understand how it could happen because they had their ankle taped for support. Well when the tape came off it was apparent that it was just put on for looks because there was no support whatsoever to the ankle joint. If you have any questions about taping, please have a professional help you or apply it for you so as to avoid serious injury.

3) Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Kenny Rogers said it beautifully, but you really do need to know when to hold off and when to call it quits. With 3 days of tournament play and an injury on the 1st match of the tourney you need to know when to let it rest so that you can play the following 2 days and help out your team. For a more serious injury it might be best to sit the whole thing out because a permanent injury might just ruin your chances of performing well for a lifetime.

4) Have Fun. One thing that I did see consistently from all the athletes was that they were having fun. And when your having fun your mentally in tune with your teammates, more alert and better equipped to bring your A game.

I will be having a Sports Injury Prevention Class soon, that will help you stay in the game and performing well by avoiding injury. Stay tuned for dates and times.

If you have any questions about Sports Injuries feel free to call my office 775-882-3555 and ask for Dr. Russell.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A recent study came out in the Journal of Manipulation and Physiology (Feb 2010, Sharon Wang, PT, PhD, Jim Meadows, PT) that shows how a problem in your neck can affect the muscles in your shoulder. Let me paraphrase the conclusion of the study here: "This study suggest that C5-C6 joint mobilization increases muscle strength of the shoulder external rotators immediately and its effect carries over for 10 minutes."

I find this study particularly interesting to those involved in sports especially volleyball, tennis, baseball etc. where extreme forces are placed upon the rotator cuff muscles and frequent injuries of the shoulder occur.

Adjustments to the mid cervical spine may prove advantageous in the preventing of shoulder injuries due to sports injury or enhanced performance/function of this critical muscle group.

If you are experiencing shoulder pain or would like to elevate your game, give my office a call and set up an appointment today to have your neck and shoulder evaluated.

Monday, March 15, 2010

April 15th is just around the corner and you know what that means. Hopefully you will have your taxes done and sent off to the IRS before this date rolls around. I recently saw a professional accountant as a patient in my office and he reported of suffering from a disease he called "TAX Back". I had no idea what he was talking about and then he started to explain it to me. He said, "You know when your neck starts hurting from leaning over a desk all day and the tension between your shoulder blades makes it feel like you are starting to grow a hump on your back. That's TAX Back."

So if you want to avoid "TAX Back" this season I suggest you give my friends at www.bertrandcpa.com a call. But if you are a glutton for punishment and just love to handle your own taxes then hurry up and file before April 15th and give my office a call to see if we can help you with your "Tax Back".

Saturday, January 30, 2010

This blog is dedicated to the athlete that has been experiencing shoulder pain.

I have been working with some of the coaches and athletes at the Capital City Volleyball Club and have been seeing a lot of shoulder injuries. So here are some tips on what to do when shoulder aches and pains seem to be getting the best of your game.

1) Get it checked out by a professional!!!!! I can't emphasize this enough. Proper diagnosis will save you pain, money, and frustration. Proper diagnosis can save you from paying for costly MRI's, probable surgery and missed practices.

2)If you are in doubt of whether to heat or ice your shoulder, it is better to err on the side of ice. In most cases inflammation is part of the shoulder problem and a good 15 to 20 minutes of ice several times a day will help you get a handle on it.

3)No pain no gain is not a great philosophy to live by! Don't continue to do exercises, practices, or movement patterns that elicit pain. The problem will not eventually go away if you continue to do the same thing over and over again. In fact you will probably irritate it more and cause further damage.

If you have any further questions I can be contacted at my office at 775-882-3555 and remember that consultations are always welcomed and free of charge.

Friday, January 1, 2010

It is the beginning of a new year with a lot to look forward to in 2010. So why are we already soooo stressed out? Well guess what?? Stress is a part of who we are and without it we can't live. So like it or not stress is here to stay. Yeah I said it, stress is something we can't live without.

I once sat through a lecture in an undergraduate class and a professor put up an EKG of a normal heart beat. It consisted of peaks as the line rose and fell and if you closed your eyes you could imagine the lub-dub sound. He pointed to it and said, "that is what stress looks like on a normal beating heart muscle." He then showed us a slide with an EKG that was flat and stated that this is what a heart muscle looks like when there isn't any stress. The heart muscle was lifeless and you could almost hear the blaring sound of the EKG machine in a hospital as the ER doc yells "we've got a flat line!" Got the picture?

We need stress. Good stress. To not only survive but to thrive. Want to have better cardio health, you need to stress that system. Want to have fantastic muscle tone, you need to stress that system. Want to make your wife or girlfriend think your smarter than Einstein, you gotta stress that system. I could go on and on about the ways we need good stress in our lives to help us grow but for now I'll just list a few quick tips to help us out in 2010.

1. Breathe. Breathe with your diaphragm not your chest. To do this, the action will feel like you are using your tummy. Rounding it out and sucking it back in. You will increase your O2 intake and it will take less effort by breathing correctly.

2. Sleep. Get enough sleep. Turn off the TV and don't stay up all night watching infomercials on products that will help you get better sleep. Remember when you were a kid and your parents put you to bed? More than likely they had a routine. Brush your teeth, get a drink, read a story and then lights out. The same rules apply. Find a routine that helps you wind down at the end of the day and you will find that you'll be getting better sleep.

3. Exercise. Get at least 30 minutes of daily exercise. Join a group of friends to help motivate you and keep you on track. My favorite form of exercise is a "Boot Camp" regime. Check out http://www.fitbodybootcamp.com/carson-city-boot-camp.html for more info on this type of exercise.

Use these three tips to help you with your stress levels and I wish all of you a very prosperous and healthy new year.